Outreach

Portable Planetarium

planetarium images
planetarium images
planetarium images
planetarium images

While at UC San Diego, I led our portable planetarium program, Cosmic Tours, where we took a ~25ft diameter inflatable planetarium that to K-12 schools and events in San Diego County to provide an exciting astronomy education experiencing.


During the coronavirus pandemic I led the development of a virtual planetarium program using the Stellarium software. I developed shows to give fun and educational tours of the night sky and deep sky objects which reinforce and supplement what is taught in school. This allowed us to continue connecting with kids in the San Diego community even when we could not physically experience the portable planetarium together.


For more information about the planetarium or to request a show, see the program webpage here.

Teaching Through Inquiry

Inquiry based teaching is an approach which places the focus on the students' role rather than the instructors'. Instead of simply presenting the material to the students, the instructor instead acts as a guide helping the students discover the material for themselves. This form of active learning can give students a deeper understanding of the material as well as a sense of ownership over the learning process.


As part of ISEE's Professional Development Program (PDP) I worked with two other scientists at UC San Diego to develop an inquiry based activity to teach key astronomical concepts like angular resolution to summer undergraduate researchers. This activity had them learn these concepts through the lens of choosing a science case and determining the proper telescope to study it, much in the same way a real observing proposal would be devised. As part of the PDP and preparation for teaching, I participated in an intensive 5-day workshop learning about inquiry based learning techniques and curriculum planning, inclusive teamwork/teaching, and facilitation techniques to guide the students while allowing them to maintain ownership over their own learning.


In 2021 I was an instructor at the first full AstroTech instrumentation summer school for early career scientists (undergrad to grads) at UC Berkeley. I co-lead the development and facilitation of the first activity of the summer school, an inquiry based introduction to basic optics concepts that the students would need throughout the week.